Nobody ever talks about how the Norse did human sacrifice. They just kinda jump over that part. Ignore it, mostly.
They don’t do that for the Aztecs though.
It’s kinda a weird case study I think in how xenophobia and racism shapes the way we talk about things. The Norse and the Aztecs were fairly similar in their violence and their complexity. Both mostly had their stories and practices written down by Catholics after the fact. Both are characterized as generally brutish and war hungry. But we only really focus in on the human sacrifice with the Aztecs.
So look at the whole picture for a minute. The Aztecs had a widely practiced state religion, philosophers, a complex class system. The Norse practiced human sacrifice. My ancestors, the ancient Scandinavians, practiced human sacrifice. There is archeological and textual evidence for this.
It’s kinda stupid to reduce the Aztecs solely down to their intimidation tactics and bloody religious rituals. Those should be part of the conversation, yes, but that’s not all they have to offer. In the same vein, we can’t just gloss over the uncomfortable parts of some older civilizations just because they’re white.
Go read up on the Aztecs a bit outside of their religion. I really like their architecture and weird calendar especially.
love 2 see discourse about fic authors writing anal sex “wrong” and coming in with first hand (or second hand or ??? accounts) about how it ACTUALLY works as if there is not natural variation in how people practice and enjoy sex.
“they always leave out the cleaning!” RIP, but some people go nasty and like it. yes this includes rimming.
“no one actually does fingering first!” sorry, honey, YOU have never fucked someone who fingered you first
alternately, “with no prep??” mhm yeah some people are just living like that
“no lube??”/“spit as lube??” literally more prevalent than the magical lube stashed in every nearby drawer/glove compartment/pocket
“there’s WAY too much emphasis on anal sex in slash fics, people don’t actually do it that much, it’s too much work” please refer to the guys fucking nasty with no prep in a bathroom stall for more information. they’ve done zero work.
“actually you need condoms even if you’re clean & monogamous to prevent UTIs/mess” please explain to me the HERCULEAN efforts it took to get people to use condoms during the AIDS crisis if they were already using them anyway
“women writing fic don’t know how to write anal” I should not have to explain that the vagina is in addition to, not instead of, the asshole
anyway, let’s just agree that fic is not sex ed and there are plenty of people out there fucking in ways that you would personally hate
Neil Gaiman: Hi, I’m Neil Gaiman. I’m wearing the first red T-shirt I’ve worn since 1987. Because I’m a member of the WGA. I’m on strike. I care so much for the things that I’ve written but I’m out here right now not working and here until we get a good contract because I care about the future of the WGA, the future of young writers. I want a world in which no AI writes scripts or attempts to. I want a world in which young writers get to learn how to make television. And I want a world in which we are fairly compensated for the things that we put up on streaming.
Sybil Ramkin: ah yes i love my swamp dragons that are small, pathetic, and could explode at any minute
Vimes: *is small, pathetic, and so full of rage and/or nerves he could explode any minute*
Sybil: hot damn
Guards! Guards! is the story of a pitiful, generally despised runt who turns putrid chemicals and his own stubborn refusal to give up into victory, and woos a large, powerful female in the process.
Don’t miss a thing! New unread activity notifications
We’re making some changes to the activity view on web — starting with unread notifications that will be highlighted blue, as well as multi-colored labels to identify those who you’re closest with.
Why are we doing this?
You may have previously noticed that some activity items were highlighted, and some weren’t. What you may not know is why this was, and you’re not alone.
The previous, light blue highlighting indicated items that were from people you follow. Obvious, right? Well, no, not really. There are design patterns in interfaces that have become standardized from widespread usage to mean a certain thing. Highlighting notifications light blue is one of those that have come to mean “unseen” or “unread.” Which is what it will now mean here, too.
How do I know which are from people I follow?
Good news! We now have colorful labels to identify activity from people you follow. On top of that, we’ve created a new label called “Mutuals” to show people you follow and who follow you back so that you can keep track of those closest to you.
Before and after
Before: Blue highlighting used to signify activity from people you follow.
After: New highlight color now used on unread activity
After: Colorful new labels to distinguish activity from people you follow (following) and who follow you back (mutuals).
More to come
This is the first of several improvements we are making to activity and notifications—so stay tuned for further updates as they come!
Feedback?
Why not let us know what you think in the replies? We’d love to hear from you.
Thank you all for the quick feedback so far! Some clarifications:
“Mutuals” are people you follow who also follow you back. This only applies to your primary blogs, not your secondary blogs, for those of you with many blogs.
This change is only on web to start, as an experiment for certain users. We’re working on bringing it to the mobile apps.
You’ll be able to clear the “unread” status just by checking your activity, either in the popover or on the full activity page, no clicking on anything required.
Please keep the feedback coming, we appreciate it!
I’ve had this for a couple of weeks and it’s cool as hell
my most active blog is a sideblog. is there any chance the mutual checking feature will be expanded to include those too? or even better, will it one day be possible to change which blog is your main?
You’re a renowned portrait artist, painting portraits for politicians, celebrities, you name it. Late one night, there’s a knock on your door. A nervous young man stands outside, pale, with elongated canine teeth. He’d like a portrait. Hasn’t seen his own face in over a century.
“They say it’s the silver backing but that’s bullshit.” He didn’t drink any of the tea they set out, but he held the warm mug as though it were a lifeline.
“Really?” They smile softly, sipping at their own mug. It wasn’t every night a vampire knocked at their door and politely requested a portrait, and this poor young man seemed in desperate need of someone to talk to.
yeah, there’s, like. a small god, shaped like a rabbit, that lives in my yard. I would say it’s a normal rabbit except it’s not. It won’t move from my driveway if I’m trying to drive out and it was there first. I can walk up within a few feet of it, and it will turn and just look at me like what do you want? It’s the only rabbit that freaks the hell out of all my birds, they CANNOT be directed or communicated with when this rabbit comes around, they will do nothing but stand on alert and stare at it making a soft warning call. I’ve caught it SEVERAL times now standing nose to nose with one of my peacocks, and it just looks at me and walks away when I catch them. hawks and falcons and eagles and owls constantly pass over my yard, and it is full of rabbits that do not hide from them, and I’ve never seen evidence of one being taken. You know the moment you walk into a very dark room and maybe it’s a room you’ve been in before and maybe you don’t believe in ghosts, but also it’s still dark and your little leftover lizard hindbrain goes “anything could be inside of here waiting for me” the second before you turn on the light? It’s like that feeling, except in the shape of a rabbit. i didn’t ask for any of that.